BMC unveils Rs 33,441 cr budget for 2020-21;no change in taxes


PTI | Mumbai | Updated: 04-02-2020 21:09 IST | Created: 04-02-2020 21:09 IST
BMC unveils Rs 33,441 cr budget for 2020-21;no change in taxes
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The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, which is the richest civic body in the country, on Tuesday unveiled its Budget for 2020-21 with the total outlay of Rs 33,441 crore, proposing a 5 per cent increase in fees for various licences without tweaking the existing tax structure. The total budget estimates for the next financial year are 8.95 per cent more than the last fiscal's budgetary outlay of Rs 30,692 crore, which was 12.5 per cent higher than the 2018-19 estimates.

While presenting Rs 6.52 crore surplus budget in the civic body's standing committee, BMC Commissioner Praveen Pardeshi said that the civic body has kept the general tax structure unchanged while proposing an increase of 5 per cent in fees for various licences, birth certificates, market licences and others. The Shiv Sena, which also heads the state government, is in power in the BMC.

The BMC, however, is expecting the estimated revenue of Rs 28,448.30 crores from various revenue sources in the year 2020-21, which is 13.87 per cent more as compared to Rs 24983.82 crore in FY 2019-20. The BMC has also focused on various infrastructure projects, health services, education and other facilities, in the budget.

The BMC has allocated Rs 14,637 crore for FY 20-21 for capital expenditure works, which includes traffic operation and roads (Rs 2699.65 crore), Coastal Road project (Rs 2000 crore), water supply projects (Rs 1728.85 crore), storm water drains (Rs 912.10 crore), and sewage disposal (Rs 870.94 crore), among others. The allocation for capital expenditure works for FY 19-20 was Rs 10,785 crore.

The BMC has also made a separate budgetary provision of Rs 2944.49 crore for education department and Rs 4260.34 crore for health department. The civic body, however, slashed down the estimated revenue expenditure to Rs 18,797 for FY 20-21 from Rs 19240 crore.

For the first time, the BMC has given a Rs 1500 crore financial grant to cash-strapped Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) undertaking by making a provision in the budget. The undertaking provides public bus service to Mumbai, and neighbouring areas. "These funds shall be used for repayment of loan, procurement of new buses under wet lease, to fulfill financial obligations arising from wage agreement, day-to-day expenditures and implementation of ITMS project etc," said Pardeshi.

Interestingly, Pardeshi also announced to allocate Rs 10 crore for tourism development, besides announcing creation of a separate tourism department that will look for eco-tourism activities around water supply reservoirs owned by the civic body. The civic body also made a provision of Rs 2 crore in the budget for taking preventive measures to control Coronavirus, which has created havoc in China, at Kasturba Hospital at Chinchpokli.

Highlighting the need, Pradeshi said Kasturba hospital is the only such facility where patients can be isolated. Pardeshi also unavailed 'Happy Mumbai 2030' plan for transforming the city into a 'happy city'.

"It is the intention of the BMC to provide all civic services to the rising population through budget. Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because and only when they are created by everybody," the municipal commissioner said. The BMC also set aside a fund of Rs 582.51 crore for the Gargai dam that is planned for meeting the city's future need of water supply, besides several other infra projects.

The budgetary allocation for the ambitious Coastal Road project, which is planned to be completed in four years, has been increased by 25 per cent from Rs 1600 crore to Rs 2000 crore. The total project cost of the project stands at Rs 12,721 crore. The BMC has allocated Rs 300 crore for the 12.2 km long Goregaon-Mulund link road project that is expected to make people's journey between Eastern and Western suburbs seamless.

As per the Budget document, the BMC revenue from property tax has gone down by Rs 335 crore due to exemption of flats having carpet area upto 500 sq ft from the purview of the tax. Population of Mumbai is expected to touch 1.30 crore in 2021 and 1.50 crore in 2031.

The Opposition parties, however, termed the budget "direction-less". "Making a provision of Rs 1500 crore is a welcome step, but the overall budget lacks the proper direction," said Ravi Raja, leader of opposition in the BMC.

BJP spokesperson Bhalchandra Shirsat said the budget is a prescription to make the richest civic body bankrupt..

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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